The Nordkap 476 – {part 40}

July 1, 2011

The ball was the next aspect to be done. in looking at the blue print, I could not understand why they had tied the lines off to the railings. this means that both lines would have to be untied, in order to raise and lower the ball. after I had tied on the fore stay, I tied on the block for it. on the ball itself, I had cemented in an eye bolt at both ends. I then tied a block to the railing. by tying the rope to one end of the ball, I was able to rig it through the blocks and tie it off on the other end of the ball. this creates a loop…….pull on one rope…..the ball goes up, pull on the opposite rope……and the ball comes back down…….simple!

The communication wires were next. the aft mast was already in place. I still had some of those tiny beads to simulate the insulators. after tying the beginning to the aft mast, I looped the thread though a slightly larger bead, and then looped it around the main mast. from there, it went back and was cemented to the other side of the aft mast. at an angle that would not {theoretically} interfere with the radar operation, I threaded and cemented another line in the larger bead and tied it off at the radar mast. after adjusting the insulators {beads} into place, they were cemented as well.

yes………..yes…..I did that too! I made up some flotation buoys……my special recipe. the chosen colors for this ship are red and white. you’ll see more of this a bit later. I did them the same way as I did for the Cux 87………I eliminated one eyelet at one end, and replaced them with 10mm brads. I then cemented that portion of the buoy to the ends of toothpicks. when both ends were painted and dried, they were assembled. the bottom parts were snipped off of the toothpicks, leaving about 1mm or so on there……when they were put together, it will press up against the eyelet tab {on the inside of the other part} and cause it to stiffen up and not move. the eyelets {now called eye bolts} were then painted flat black.